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The next morning, I woke in our fur bed to find him gone, but that wasn’t unusual. Sometimes Aizor had meetings with various members of his clan. He’d finish and come back to me.
He’d always come back to me, and the knowledge thrilled through me.
I knew what I had to do. How should I tell him?
I left our crystal home, and spying Franklin scooting past the dining building and along a trail weaving into the woods, I hurried to the kitchen, requested a plate of food, and followed.
“Franklin,” I called out as I entered the woods. I stopped, looking around, but I didn’t see him. His usual whine didn’t greet me either. “Where are you, little guy?” I walked farther down the path, calling out to him periodically.
The trail wove below the cliffs to the left of the circle of crystal homes, and I kept stopping to admire the spiky vegetation that bent at my touch yet felt and looked like solid glass. How long had the crystal aliens been on this planet? It must be thousands of years, since their structures were prevalent in everything I’d seen so far. It took a long time for a person to acclimate to eating glassy vegetation, so maybe we were talking about millions of years.
Would I ever learn more about their history? They were tightly woven into Zuldruxian society, to the point the people believed the crystals were gods. In many ways, they served that role well. They cared for the people and had a close-knit relationship with them. I wasn’t one to discount anyone else’s religion.
The ground dropped off considerably on my right, the edge of the path giving way to a steep, jagged cliff made up of boulders, scruffy trees, and rich, purple soil flecked with gold.
I hugged the inside of the trail as I walked.
“Franklin?” Finally, I came to a stop. “Where are you?”
His whine rang out ahead, and I hurried in that direction, rounding a curve in the path to find him sitting not far ahead.
I dropped to my heels and laid the plate on the ground.
He started forward but stopped suddenly, hissing.
Someone rushed up behind me and shoved my back.
I skidded across the path on my belly and toppled over the side of the cliff.
Chapter 32
Aizor
“Have you seen Vanessa?” I asked Jessia. She sat with Trevar, Brulon, and their mother at a table in the dining area, eating lunch.
“No, I haven’t.” She looked around. “Is she in the kitchen? I think she said something about wanting to experiment with loosag-na earlier. Frankly, I was looking forward to trying it, but when I arrived to eat, she wasn’t here. She may have decided to prepare the loosag-na a different day and slipped past us.” Her indulgent smile took in the younglings. “These boys keep a person busy.”
“They sure do,” the younglings’ mother said.
Vanessa wasn’t in the kitchen, though Muzzire was.
“Have you seen my mate?”
He continued to eat a cookie, smacking his tusks with pleasure at the taste. “I have not.” He held it out. “These . . . I’ve never had anything like them before. They’re not bribard.”
“They’re not.” Leaving him to finish his cookie, I went to our home. Everything appeared tidy, and for the first time ever, I didn’t like how efficient the gods were about cleaning. If things were lying about, it might give me a clue as to where my mate had gone.
Outside, I scanned the area.
Krute came over to stand with me. “I found evidence that Nevarn’s males came close to our homes again early this morning.” He scowled toward the thick woods surrounding our small valley. “Not only that, but I found more big footprints. I tell you; others are intruding into our lands. We need to attack them all. I’ve been saying this for a long time. I understand why you hesitate.” He laid a hand on my shoulder. “You have a new mate. She’s lovely. But we must protect our people.”
“You’re right.” I wasn’t sure how to do it, however. I didn’t want to endanger my mate or the clan. “I don’t want to start a war. We’re too few already. Neither clan can afford to lose anyone.” As for the large footprints, I needed to study them myself before deciding about that.
“I understand this. I do.” Krute shook his head. “But we must dosomething.”
“I’d like to call a clan traedor gathering.”
“Like you did to plead with the gods for a mate?”
